A wolf in any other clothing
by P.L. Nunn
Summary: A continuation of Flip of the Coin and The road to hell.
1. Default Chapter

A wolf in any other clothing . . .1

A WOLF IN ANY OTHER CLOTHES . . . . . 

Part One

Ryo was depressed. The den was dark, the light from the TV the only viable illumination. The low, edgy background music of the game the only sound infiltrating the room. There was a mostly eaten box of donut holes on the couch next to him and a quart of milk on the lamp table. He stared morosely at the antics of Laura Croft as she tried to unsuccessfully negotiate a jump that she had tried at least six straight times successively. He was starting to hate this game. 

It wasn't his. It was Rowan's. Rowan loved Laura Croft. Rowan claimed he'd trade Sai for her in a heartbeat. Sai had nothing to say about that, save for the occasional mutterings that Echo the dolphin was by far more enchanting than a globe trotting floozy. 

Ryo popped another donut hole and thought hateful things about the floozy in question when she missed the critical jump by a fraction of an inch and plummeted to the water below. Splash and she had to go through the whole series of moves to get back to the annoying ledge. 

It was 4:37. AM. He couldn't sleep. He kept dreaming about snakes crawling around the floor of his room. He dreamed about other things that did not stick quite so vividly in his memory. A week past and he hadn't had a decent night's sleep since. 

Just reaction, Sai said. Normal reaction after surviving something that had not been at all -- pleasant. 

Ryo didn't think it was normal at all. Ryo had survived worse things and had not lost a wink of sleep afterwards. Of course there were other problems that still lurked as a result of this particular experience. Seiji was angry and Seiji wasn't talking much to any of them. And since he wasn't talking, it was left to the imagination as to just what he was angry about, and who he blamed -- if he blamed anyone -- and what the hell he was doing about it. Seiji in a tiff was infuriatingly uncommunicative. Seiji seriously angry, just formed a wall about himself and let nothing and no one in. 

Which was damned unfair, considering. Seiji hadn't been the one who had been hurt by the root cause of that anger. Not really hurt. Ryo had and Sai had and neither of them were holding grudges. 

There was a rattling at the door through the kitchen. Ryo almost didn't hear it in his divided concentration in game and melancholy. It occurred again, louder. The distinct clattering of the door on its hinges. Then a low, rumbling whine that drifted through the house from just outside.

He sat up, recognizing the pattern of the rattle and the subsequent whine. White Blaze, who had been off on one of his mysterious sojourns since mid-winter. Ryo paused the game and sprang up, padding into the darkened kitchen and through the laundry room to the back door. He unlatched it and a broad, white head shoved its way impatiently through. 

"Hey, boy," he crooned, dropping to his knees to welcome an animal that outweighed him four times over and then some. He got flattened against the wall as the tiger pressed against him, sticking his cold, flat nose up against Ryo's cheek, scenting his hair and his skin, then granting his approval of Ryo's smell by swiping the side of his face with a huge, rough tongue. 

"Where have you been, boy?" He ran his fingers through thick white fur, luxuriating in the rumbling purr that vibrated through tiger body and into his own. A purr that could set a mind to ease and soothe a bruised soul. He could have sat there indefinitely, with that large warm weight against him, but the tiger's patience was limited. 

White Blaze moved past, into the house. Ryo's fingers trailed through his fur as he passed, brushed against something crusty and moist. He absently rubbed his fingers together, held them up in the wan moonlight and drew his breath at the dark stain. 

Blood? He scrambled up, hurrying in the tiger's wake, turning on lights as he went. 

"Blaze? Wait up, boy." But the cat was making for the den and the rug in front of the woodstove where he liked to sprawl out before the heat. The stove wasn't going now, with the mild weather of late spring. The room was cool with early morning chill. With the light on, there was a very obvious stain of red in the fur of the tiger's flank. 

"Ohmygod." Ryo skidded to his knees next to the cat, fingers spreading the fur around the stain. White Blaze growled low, swinging his great head to glare at Ryo's prodding. Ryo ignored him, trusting in an intelligence far removed from the normal, mundane tiger. 

There was a wound. A gunshot wound if he was not mistaken. Rifle shot maybe, because there was no scattering of buckshot. A clean, precise entry that had leaked blood down one flank. The ears flattened and he got a hiss as he prodded it. He let off, panicked and scrambled to his feet in a moment of indecision. The tiger shifted, began licking at the wound, which only started the bleeding anew. Ryo's alarm reached a crescendo. He darted for the stairs, calling desperately for the sleeping occupants of the house to rouse. 

They did, at intervals. Seiji appeared at the top of the stairs, in the loose silk sleeping pants he preferred, a narrow wary look in his eyes as he sought out the source of the disturbance. Rowan migrated out of Sai's room not long after, considerably more tousled and considerably less fashionably attired in Tasmanian Devil print boxers. 

"What the fuck ---?" Rowan didn't like being roused out of sound sleep. It took him a moment to focus. Seiji was already starting down the stair, having already ascertained by Ryo's frantic gestures that something was seriously amiss. 

"He's shot. He's shot." Ryo proceeded the both of them into the den, dropping down next to the cat, reflexively stroking the large flat head. They followed him in and Rowan exclaimed softly, crouching down on White Blaze's other side and peering down at the bloody patch. 

"Who in hell did that?"

"I don't know." Ryo moaned. "I think the bullet's still in there. We've got to help him."

"What happened?" That was Kento tromping sleepily into the room with Sai on his heels. Ryo ignored the both of them in favor of looking pleadingly up at Seiji. 

"Go get Dr. Veska, Seiji. Please. She likes you." 

Which was only the purest truth. Women in general tended to fawn over Seiji. The local veterinarian, who had become their supplier of various tiger related necessities was no exception. She'd started drooling over him a few summers ago during the great flea war, when he'd been smart enough to fight the battle from the point of the carrier - a certain exotic and entirely unmundane tiger -- instead of attempting to eliminate an entire countryside full of the little monsters. 

Seiji stared at him. At White Blaze. And refrained from pointing out the obvious. That it was before five the morning and that even country vets might not be up at such an hour. He just nodded once and turned on his heel to go upstairs and get dressed. 

And was down in short order, pulling on a jacket over an oversized sweater and jeans, which was extremely casual wear for Seiji -- his 'I don't have the time or the inclination to throw together something more aesthetically pleasing' choice of clothing. He stopped at the door and looked back through the doorway to the den, a slight line marring the smooth skin between his brows. 

"Keys, Ryo." He requested, sounding just a little put upon and one had to imagine it had more to do with having to use the jeep than the quest he'd agreed to undertake. There had been other distractions this past week that had kept him from seeing about the procurement of a new car. 

"Ummm, hook by the door?" Ryo suggested, distracted by White Blaze's low rumbling whine. The tiger was not exactly pleased with the humans clustering around him. Not with a throbbing hurt in his haunch. 

"No." Seiji informed him.

"Oh. The bowl on the table?"

That suggestion proved a viable one. Seiji found the keys and left. The others were left to worriedly hover over a cat growing more agitated by the moment at the clustered attention. The tiger growled menacingly at Sai when he tried to part the fur and look at the wound, not quite as ready to take such treatment from anyone buy Ryo. Sai backed off, exchanging worried looks with Ryo.

"I'm going to make some tea." Sai announced to cover the nervousness. T o cover the feeling of helplessness that Ryo felt to the extreme and the others had to have traces of. 

"Its not even deer season." Rowan stood by the window, looking out in the wan beginnings of early morning. He wrapped his arms about his bare chest and shivered. "Who the hell is out hunting this time of year?"

"You think they were shooting at him?" Kento made a gesture at the tiger. 

One had to wonder. One had to be curious where the animal went when he wasn't making the house and the acres of forest land that belonged to it -- to Mia really -- his own personal territory. One had to make the assumption that the other locals -- a good deal of which were ranchers and had sheep and other livestock to think about -- might become a tad agitated at the sight of a ghostly white tiger skulking about the woods near their livelihood. One had never really thought about what White Blaze found to sustain himself when he was gone for weeks and months at a time. Did he restrict his hunting to wildlife or did he take advantage of fat, docile domesticated food? 

A rancher would be within his rights to try and shoot a predator depleting his herd. It would not be an easy problem to solve, were that the case. 

It was a long drive into town. At the very least it would take Seiji an hour to get back. Ryo didn't know if he could stand to wait that long. Sai forced a warm mug of tea into his hands and told him to leave the cat alone in no uncertain terms.

"Nobody likes to be prodded when they're not feeling well. He's going to scratch you if you keep at him." Sai predicted, veering around White Blaze to deliver Rowan his cup of tea. Rowan had gone upstairs and donned the warmth of sweatpants and sweat shirt. He moved over to sit on the couch next to Ryo who sat on the floor, using the arm as a backrest. 

"I'll go into town tomorrow and ask around to see who shot him."

"And what? Ask them to stop?"

"Something like that." Rowan smiled tightly, a little predator-like himself. 

Ryo frowned up at him. "If people hear there's a tiger prowling the woods it won't just be one person. God, Rowan, he's usually so ----- careful. Nobody ever knew he was around before." 

Rowan reached down and patted his shoulder. Comfortable and reassuring. Rowan was back to being those things. Back to being not high strung and morose, back to not shooting Ryo looks of blame that he didn't deserve. He had been vastly apologetic not long after they had come back to this realm from the aspect of hell they had been marooned in. Had been - for Rowan - exceptionally distraught. 

If you never forgive me, I'll understand. That had been the first thing out of his mouth when he'd finally gotten up the nerve to come and talk to Ryo. Or had finally been harassed into it by Sai. One couldn't be sure. Ryo had just blinked at him, taken back by the earnestness in Rowan's eyes and the nervous movements of his fingers as they pulled at hair, at hem, at the buttons of his shirt. For a moment, Ryo had actually not been able to recall what he was supposed to never forgive Rowan for. Then he had and he'd blushed and Rowan had, and Rowan who never babbled incoherently, went into a jumbled explanation/apology that Ryo got about half of. But he understood the gist. He understood the underlying fear and helplessness that had spawned the blame and the subsequent acting upon it. Sai had been at issue and Sai's hurt and Sai's inability to cope with a senseless violence that all of them had been freaked over. One understood that Rowan and Sai were close. More than physically close. Linked in a way that one intrinsically felt the discord in the other even if they did not always understand what or why. They all had the bond to certain degrees. He could understand Rowan's agitation. He could forgive. 

God, he already had long before this. But he supposed Rowan needed to hear it from his lips. So he gave his absolution and Rowan was happy. And Sai was happy, and Kento was happy that the rest of them were at peace. Except for Seiji, who had the same bond the rest of them did and was so much more adept at blocking it than any of them. Except for Seiji who retreated into solitude and meticulously proper decorum when he was around them and shut himself away in his room the rest of the time, doing gods knew what. Meditating maybe. Sulking. Punishing himself for a moment of weakness. Who the hell knew. Seiji certainly wasn't letting clues slip. 

It made Ryo want to hit him. Hard. It made his fists clench in agitation. It made him want to scream, only Seiji would just stand there and stare at him as if he were an inmate recently escaped from an asylum and he would end up feeling foolish and childish. 

The tea was cold in the mug. He hadn't taken a sip of it. Sai leaned over him and took the ceramic cup from his hands with a disapproving frown a perfectly good tea gone to waste. Rowan was playing Tomb Raider with the sound turned down. 

The front door rattled and Ryo started up, half way across the room before Seiji stepped in, holding the door open for a tousle haired, middle aged woman to enter before him. Dr. Veska, who had graying red hair and the thickening hips of middle age seeping up upon her. 

"You came. Thank you, thank you." Ryo took her arm, urging her into the den. 

"Don't pull, boy." She complained, shifting a hefty black leather bag in her free hand. 

"Ryo." Seiji said his name with that calm, slightly reprimanding tone of voice that said calm down and don't embarrass me in public. Ryo let go Dr. Veska's arm and settled for ushering her into the den, and dogging her footsteps to the long white form stretched out before the wood stove. 

"Good god." She breathed. "I knew you boys had the creature -- but seeing is something else." With an effort, she dropped to her knees at White Blaze's haunch. The tiger lifted his head to stare at her warily, great nose twitching as he tested her scent. She hesitated in putting her hand on him, gauging those round feline eyes. 

"Is he safe?" She asked.

"'Course he is." Ryo assured her, gracefully settling down on White Blaze's other side, immediately plunging his hands into thick fur. 

"He's smarter than your average bear." Rowan said, having discarded the game controller to sit forward and observe. 

"Yes, he's very people friendly." Sai said.

"He's a tiger." The vet stated flatly. "I don't relish dealing with a wound like this without him being anesthetizes."

"We can't take him into town." Ryo said.

"Don't you have something to knock him out?" Rowan asked. "Y'know, slip him a Mickey or something?"

She held up a thick needle and gave Rowan a pointed stare. "Got a tranq. But I don't like using them."

"It's not dangerous ---?"

"Its always dangerous." She said. "But I'm not cutting into this cat without one."

"But --" Ryo barely got the word out before the needle plunged into the tiger's flank. White Blaze's ears twitched. A low growling emerged from his throat, but other than that, he did not protest. After a few minutes he lay his head back down upon the carpet, lids flickering over his eyes. Dr. Veska tentatively put a hand on his side. Tiger breathing did not change. Steady, slow breathes. She nodded and parted the hair about the shot. 

There was more blood when she explored the entry wound. She had to widen the gap to get the pair of long tweezer like tongs into it. White Blaze twitched and Ryo began stroking his fur, murmuring calming things to him. 

"There -- I can feel it." She said. "Just need to get ahold of it ---" 

She twisted the tongs to get a better angle. A little blood gushed out. The tiger spasmed. Ryo felt the lunge even as the snarl broke past the tiger's jaws. He was not in a position to pit his strength against White Blazes and hold the cat down. With an agile twist and a speed born of a jungle predator, the tiger twisted and lashed out stretched claws towards the source of its pain. The vet didn't even see it coming. 

Seiji did. Seiji was marginally quicker than a tranquilized White Blaze. Seiji inserted himself between raking, finger length claws and unprotected doctor. The of ripping flesh was muffled by the thick sweater. Seiji winced, turning a little pale. Ryo cried out and flung himself atop White Blaze's shoulder, using weight and every bit of leverage he could assert to make the cat lie back down. Kento added his considerable strength and between them they pinned a growling, trembling tiger back to the carpet.

"Got it." Dr. Veska said and held up a bloody little chunk of metal. "Just hold the damn thing a moment longer while I sew up the hole."

"Seiji -- are you okay?" Ryo stared at him, wide eyed. Seiji had one hand on his right arm, fingers squeezing tightly. His lips were a tight line. The sweater was too dark to tell if there was much blood, but the stain seeping between Seiji's fingers told another story. 

"Oh -- god, Seiji. He didn't mean it." Ryo gasped. 

"I -- know."

"Seiji, come into the kitchen. Let me look at that." Sai was hovering. Seiji shook his head, not taking himself from between the dangerous end of the tiger and the doctor until she finished. She did. In record time. Not the prettiest stitches in the world, but with a restless tiger coming quickly out of his tranquilized state, one had to let need overshadow art. 

The doctor scooted back quickly, and Rowan helped her to her feet. 

"We really should look at that?" she told Seiji. "You ever given him a rabies shot?" 

"Who Seiji?" Rowan asked. "Didn't think we needed to. Does he look rabid to you?"

Dr. Veska lifted a brow at Rowan. Seiji glowered silently and climbed with some effort to his feet. He was shaking a little. There was blood on the hand of the injured arm hanging at his side. 

Ryo felt sick seeing it. Ryo knelt there with his arms around White Blaze's thick neck and felt like throwing up. Sai and Dr. Veska ushered Seiji into the kitchen where the light was better to see to the scratch. 

Now that the pain was gone, White Blaze's breathing was relaxed, his body released of tension. A deep rumbling purr actually vibrated from his throat. Kento sat back, staring at Ryo, who couldn't quite convince himself to move. 

"You okay, man?" Kento asked.

Ryo blinked and looked up, seeing concern in Kento's face. Couldn't for the life of him imagine why it was there for him. 

"Yeah. Yeah, o'course."

Kento nodded once, and held out a hand. Ryo took it and let Kento haul him to his feet. God, his hands were trembling. He looked down at them in bewilderment. 

"He'll be okay, now." Kento assured him and wrapped one big arm about his shoulders for a quick squeeze. "Let's go see if Seiji's gonna bleed out or what?"

"Kento! That's not funny."

"Yeah. Yeah."

There were three deep gashes running diagonally from Seiji's shoulder down along his right biceps. They were bleeding copiously. And the vet was muttering to herself as she tried to staunch the flow, occasionally waving a hand at Sai who wanted very badly to get in her way. 

"Should you stitch it up?" Sai wanted to know. "Can you do that to people?"

"Of course I can." She said. "But this really needs looking at by someone qualified. And he needs a tetanus shot if he's not up to date. And maybe a little antibiotic in case of infection. These are deep scratches."

"You do it. If you don't mind." Seiji said quietly, sitting very calmly on a kitchen stool while he was fussed over. But there was a tightness around his eyes that said he was exerting a great deal of effort to maintain the facade of calm. Like White Blaze, he occasionally twitched uncontrollably when he was prodded the wrong way. 

"Well, I don't have a local to numb the area." The vet muttered, giving him a wary, uncertain look.

"Why don't you use the tranq you used on White Blaze on him? Maybe it'll work better this time." Was Rowan's suggestion. The vet opened her mouth to retort. Seiji just closed his eyes and said.

"Just do it."

So she sewed him up, admonishing all the while to get into town tomorrow and get it seen to properly. Then Kento took her home and the house resumed something of the peace it had known before White Blaze had come limping home. 

Morning light was streaming through the windows, by the time Ryo got up the nerve to go knocking at Seiji's door. There was a long pause. No answer, so he tentatively turned the knob and pushed the door a crack open. 

Seiji sat on the thick ledge of the widow, his back to the wall, his knees pulled up close to his chest, the injured arm draped across his stomach. He had put on a loose white shirt, but refrained from buttoning it. 

"Seiji? You okay?" Ryo hesitated in the door way, feeling as if he were intruding in this familiar place. Seiji's pale eyes drifted his way, focused on him. Studied him for a moment before he dipped his head, letting a thick wave of golden hair fall down to obscure his eyes. 

"Go away, Ryo." He said softly.

Ryo stood there, fingers tightening on the door knob, bewilderment and frustration building to a breaking point. 

"Why?" he cried, voice breaking on that one, all important question. "Why are you mad at me, Seiji? What did I do?"

Seiji said nothing. He turned to stare out the window, blocking Ryo out of his vision, out of his thoughts. 

"Damnit, Seiji, this isn't fair. And it's not right! At least tell me what I did? If you're gonna hold a grudge against me, then I at least ought to know what for. Is it for something that happened -- in hell? I don't blame you for anything that went on there, so I don't see why you're so upset."

That got reaction. That got a jerk of the head and a hostile glare thrown his way. Seiji came up off the window with much the same defensive violence White Blaze had used and Ryo actually took a step backwards. 

"Well, maybe you should! Don't you have the common sense to know when you've been wronged, you imbecile?!"

He stalked forward, pure anger radiating from eyes, from stance, from his very aura and Ryo took another hasty step back when he lifted his arm. But it was only to catch hold of the door and slam it shut. It almost hit Ryo in the face. And he stood there afterwards trembling and shocked, with the vague, blossoming suspicion that Seiji's anger was totally irrational and totally at odds with the Seiji he knew. 

"What the hell was that?" Rowan came out of the bathroom, a towel around his shoulders and damp, spiky hair. Ryo blinked at him. Took a cautious step away from Seiji's door and towards Rowan. Another before he got up the momentum to take Rowan's arm and walk him far enough away from that ominous door so as not to be overheard.

"Seiji's mad at me."

"Yeah, I sorta got that idea when he stopped talking to you."

"Seiji's mad at me because I'm not mad at him."

Rowan chewed his lip for a second. "Ooookay. That makes sense in some sort of skewered Seiji-sort of way."

"It does?"

"Sure it does. He's feeling guilty big time and nobody's coming down on him for it. Othern' me clocking him -- and he wasn't even home to appreciate that -- none of us have really cast any blame for what he did."

"But it wasn't him that did any of those things, Rowan." Ryo pointed out in a desperate attempt at reason. 

"I know that. You know that. Seiji's another matter. Honor's like a really prickly thing with him. This has got to be eating him up."

"Well, what do I do?"

"I dunno. Hit him? Throw something at him? Cuss at him until he gets that really offended, scandalized look on his face that cracks me up so much."

"I can't do that."

Rowan shrugged. "Then let him stew and get over it himself. Soon as he gets really horny, he'll come lookin' for you, then you can make nice and make up."

Ryo blushed and glared. 

"Hey, it works for Sai."

Ryo sniffed and glanced back at Seiji's door. "You're going into town?" he asked to change an uncomfortable subject.

"Yeah. You wanna come?"

"No. I want to stay and watch Blaze."

"Me and Kento'll find out what we can. There's bound to be talk if anyone did realize it was a white tiger they were shooting at."

Ryo nodded. He hoped it were that easy. He hoped if they did find the hunter they could quell the rumors. Make any compensation for possible lost livestock and keep this whole thing from getting out of hand. 

[NEXT][1]

   [1]: wolves2.htm



	2. Chapter Two

wolves2

Chapter Two

Ryo had had a dream that night, stretched out on the floor of the den pressed up against White Blaze's feverish warmth. It verged on the same nightmare he'd had ever since returning home from hell. Hallucinatory creatures pursuing him through fog and fetid swamp, dark predatory shapes that were always just beyond his perception. Himself too weak to turn and fight, too weak to run fast enough to evade them. Toyed with mercilessly by things that knew that sooner or later they would win. Only this time it wasn't the pack that trailed him. It was something larger and solitary that noiselessly glided through the swamp, drawn by the aura of his _life_. Drawn by the faint scent of life that leaked through the gateway that had brought him here, that still pulsed, fed by the power of all their armors. 

He never saw it, only sensed its presence. Sensed its pure malevolence. It herded him where it wanted him to go and when there was no place else to run, it lurked just within the thick boundary of fog, waiting for him to cower in surrender. He wouldn't. He screamed at it, challenging it to attack him while he was up and willing to fight, knowing that if it waited too much longer the poison would seep in and take even that advantage away from him. 

And in the dream it did, washing over him much too fast, drawing the strength out of him, sending him to his knees in the fetid mud of the swamp and out of the darkness and the fog something sprang - - - -

- - - - He woke up with a start, blinking at the logs that made up the rafters in the ceiling. The tiger's long body slumbered peacefully beside him, twitching occasionally with cat dreams. His hair was damp on his forehead from sweat and his shoulder throbbed with the ghosts of wounds that had faded the moment he had crossed back over the boarder from hell. He lay for a while, listening to the early morning sounds of the house. The familiar creaks, the ticking of the clock over the mantle. He heard the heavy treads of Kento going from his room down the hall towards the shower. Heard Rowan humming along to some tune on the radio upstairs. The two of them were going into town this morning to ask about the tiger shooting. Rowan had said he'd wanted an early start. Rowan had said this was a working man's town and people appreciated a body who was up with the sun and ready for a hard days work. As if Rowan had ever put one in that didn't involve saving the world. Ryo wasn't ready to get up. Not ready to leave the soft warmth of the rug and the cat who he had sat up worrying about all night long. He trusted Rowan to find out what had happened. Rowan was good at that sort of thing.

"Man, you have got to get this thing tuned. I feel guilty just riding in it, it sounds so bad." Rowan slouched back in the passenger seat of Kento's old Chevy, one arm hanging out the window, sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose as the breeze and the early morning sun invaded the car. 

"I _did._" Kento said, sounding indignant. Everyone but him had accepted the fact that the car was in its last, painful stages of life. It bounced over a rut in the road and it sounded as if something scraped ground. It felt like Rowan's bones were rattling, the shocks were so bad. You'd think Kento would nurse the thing along, but he still drove like a madman. Seiji wouldn't get in the car with him unless it was a dire emergency. Sai would tend to grab frantically for the seatbelt in a race to get it fastened before Kento could kick gravel up in his bid for the road. 

Rowan didn't mind. Rowan was of a more adventurous nature. He liked to live dangerously. He still used the seat belt, but he grinned when they skidded on a back roads turn and left a cloud of dust behind them. It was a long ride to town. A long weaving trek through miles of forest that covered not quite mountainous land. The mountains were further on. These were just the foot hills. It was still damned backwoods. Mia's grandfather had done a lot of studying out here. A lot of research into some peculiar things, which Mia had taken up. Mia was more a city girl, though. She liked the libraries and the museums and the collages to be close by. It was inconvenient to have to drive two hours just to find a bit of obscure information in some ancient text that was sitting in the archives of the some museum that she was affiliated with. She was affiliated with a lot of them., especially since she was into her post-graduate work. Which was why they got use of the house. 

And why they had to drive a good forty-five minutes -- thirty if it was Kento driving -- to reach the closest outpost of civilization. Sometimes the woods thinned out and there were pockets of fenced pasture land. A lot of sheep. Some cattle. Some tilled plots where ranchers cultivated their own corn and wheat. Mostly it was wilderness. Undeveloped forest. There was a lot of wildlife out there. A lot of things living in the depths of miles and miles of forest that probably had never seen a man. Rowan liked to hunt out there in the depths. Liked out go out with a bow and revert for a little while to the primitive. Not a lot. Sai got upset if he brought back too many large eyed victims. Sai could handle a buck here and there, especially if he didn't have to see it gutted, but he'd start getting mopy and morose if too many animal corpses showed up on their doorstep. Which was okay with Rowan. It wasn't the kill he got off on, it was the hunt. 

It was early afternoon when they got into town. The main road off the highway, was two lane and sorely in need of repair. There was a main strip with two intersections and a few parallel roads on either side of Main Street. Mostly business, since a good deal of the locals lived out in the backwoods on ranches or farms. There were two drug stores, a bank, a popular chain motel, a discount department store, the big feed and seed outlet, a scattering of restaurants and two local bars. There was talk of a theater being opened, but one truly doubted the eventuality of that happening. 

"So where'd we start?" Kento asked.

"You go down to the feed and seed and I'll go ask the law if anything's been reported."

The sheriff's office snuggled in-between a struggling coffee shop and a grease spattered garage. It had a bulletin board outside the door littered with wanted posters the subjects of which would probably never venture anywhere near this out of the way little town. The only villains that might be drawn here were most certainly not of a caliber that the aging local sheriff could deal with. Or even comprehend. 

Rowan strolled into the office. It always struck him as looking exactly like the set out of the Andy Griffith show's Mayberry sheriff's office. Complete with open faced cells compacted within the large main space, and the rickety old desk with the country deputy sitting behind it drinking coffee and reading the county paper. 

"Hey, deputy Bob." Rowan said cheerfully. The name plate on the desk read Robert Bensley. Rowan had met him on several occasions during the delivery of a speeding ticket or four. It was sheer perversity that Kento had never received a one. 

"Its deputy Benson." The man grumbled, with the tone of a man well used to being called names he was less than fond of. 

Yeah, whatever." Rowan plopped down in the chair on the other side of the desk. A particularly large spider could have crawled up onto the chair and received a less flattering look than the one deputy Benson gave Rowan. He slowly put the paper down and stared expectantly. 

"I was wondering," Rowan started, a story already clear cut in his head. "If anybody had reported any trouble with wild animals or anything. Somebody shot at my dog last night, and I wanted to see if he'd caused any trouble. Chasing stock or something?"

"You wanna fill out a report?" A weary sigh. The deputy started to reach for a stack papers. 

"No. Nothing like that. Just wanted to maybe make it right myself if anybody had any problem. You heard any thing?"

"Well, there've been a lot of sheep missing from a couple a farms. A few cattle ripped up and gutted."

"Really? What's doing it?"

"Nobodies seen anything. Just missing animals or carcasses. Not a lot of tracks to tell who the culprit is. Might want to go down to the Hot Ta Trot and ask Vick Drummond if he shot at anything last night. He lost a few sheep I hear tell and was mad as hell."

"Lost 'em last night?"

The deputy nodded.

"And he's over at the Hot Ta Trot?"

"That's where he drinks." 

Kento had gotten side-tracked on his way back from the feed and seed. Predictably Rowan found him at the greasy little hamburger shack, flirting with the fifteen year old behind the counter. 

"She's illegal." Rowan told him, hauling him away. 

"M'not after her." Kento said indignantly, stuffing the last of a burger into his mouth. "She's just nice. Always gives me double portions."

"Right. She must know you're a growing boy." Rowan smirked. 

"Fuck off, Rowan." Kento muttered, then asked. "Where we going? You find out anything?"

"Hot Ta Trot and sorta. You?"

"Not much. Guy at the feed store said he hadn't heard anything, but he's like a hundred and ten, so he might not remember even if he had. Why we going to the Strip joint, Rowan?"

"Lookin' for a guy."

Kento gave him a blank look. 

"Trust me.'

The Hot Ta Trot was at the end of main street. As far away from the church as it could get and still be within the town limits. It was a seedy one stripper club that got business only because it was the only place within a fifty mile radios that one could see a live naked woman one was not married or courting. Which wasn't saying much. Rowan had seen the full time stripper with her clothes on and she was nothing to brag about. There was a poster next to the door proclaiming a visiting act though. The famous Chesty McBoobs, who apparently worked with reptiles, an assortment of battery operated devices and various food related items. One had to how famous she could be if she was reduced to working an out of the way place like this. 

It was dark and warm within the bar. The tinny sound of cheap speakers emitted a late eighty's tune and a top heavy woman was performing on the stage. A group of men sat close to the stage and few more at tables around it drinking and silently taking in the act. Maybe six customers total, which was more than Rowan would have thought this early in the day to be patronizing a run down strip joint. 

They weeded their way between tables. The locals never even glanced back at their presence, too immersed in what the stripper was doing. Even Rowan had to stop and stare. 

"Here baby, only two bucks." The woman -- she was far past the claim of girlhood cooed seductively at one of the men leaning on the stage. It was a toostie pop, sans wrapper that had previously seen what one assumed to be a well trafficked area of her anatomy. Two of the men hastily held forth the required bills and she chose one to bestow the token upon. She had a handful more to doll out. 

"That is just --- ungodly." Rowan muttered to Kento, who was staring, mouth agape at the antics on the stage. He stared himself for another few breathes before he tore his gaze away and tapped a baseball capped man on the shoulder.

"Hey, you know if Vick Drummond is here?" 

He was. And he did not appreciate having his attention drawn away from the novelty the visiting stripper was providing. 

"Yeah, I shot at something." The man said, eyes flickering back and forth between Rowan and the stage. "But it weren't no dog, I can tell you that."

"Well, he's a big dog. You sure?" Rowan asked. 

"No dog did to my cow what this thing did. Ripped her all to hell and back. Ain't no dog got claws like that."

"Well -- what do you think it was then?' Rowan asked with a sinking feeling. Tigers most certainly had impressive claws. 

"I dunno. Maybe a big cat down from the mountains."

"Cat? What about a bear. Maybe it was a bear or something."

Vick Drummond arched a shaggy brow at Rowan. "Bears don't attack livestock, boy. Bears ain't as fast as whatever it was I shot at was last night. Bears don't travel in pairs."

"Pairs? There were two of them?" The sudden hopeful note in his voice got him a wary look from the rancher. But the fact that there had been two things out in the night hunting together pointed distinctly away from White Blaze. That particular tiger only hunted with his human pack. 

"There was two of something out there. Shot at the one and the other high tailed it back into the woods in the other direction. Neither one of the things left tracks worth a damn. The rain this morning didn't help."

Two things. Two things that were good at covering their trail. White Blaze was crafty as hell. Rowan had trouble tracking him and Rowan was proud of his ability to follow a trail. Which meant that maybe White Blaze had been curious about whatever else was out there and just happened to be around when the rancher had gone on his shooting spree. 

It was something to tell Ryo at any rate. 

Seiji reached for the cabinet over the sink and winced, drawing his arm back out of reflex, a slight tightening of his lips the only facial indication of pain he allowed himself to show. Ryo saw it anyway. Ryo was in the midst of chopping up the only fresh meat he could find in the fridge, a package of T-bones that Kento had been planning to grill out. Kento would bitch, but White Blaze was already up and prowling, whining at the doors to be let out. A nice bowl of fresh red meat -- well meat mixed with a fair bit of scavenge that Ryo had managed to obtain from pantry and refrigerator, would settle him down. 

"I thought Dr. Veska told you to go and have that looked at?'

Seiji reached with his other arm for the container of tea bags, flung golden bangs out of his eyes with a toss of his head and fixed Ryo with a flat stare.

"She's a vet."

"Doesn't make any difference." Ryo thwacked the big butcher knife down sharp enough to shatter the bone clear through in one of the steaks. "Its just common sense you ought to go and have a doctor see it."

Seiji lifted a brow and set water on to boil. 

Ryo glowered at his meat mixture, scooped the whole mess up and dumped it in a big stainless steel bowl and stalked into the den to tempt White Blaze with it. God, but Seiji irritated him. Stubborn and secretive and imperious. 

He stomped back into the kitchen as the tea kettle began to whistle and stood in the doorway scowling at Seiji. 

"Okay, you win. I am mad at you. I am so close to flat out hating you right now I can taste it. That make you happy, you arrogant jackass?"

Seiji paused in reaching for the kettle. He stood there a moment then pulled his hand away. "This isn't the time or place." 

As if airing the dirty laundry during the light of day in the kitchen were below him. 

"What is the time? Middle of the night on the doorstep of your room so you can slam the door in my face when it gets too --- _emotional_ for you?"

Seiji blinked at him. Seiji very carefully reached for the kettle with his left arm and poured steaming water into his cup. "Is there a point to this?" he inquired, back turned. Ryo thought just maybe there was a ghost of a tremor in his voice. A sliver of upset that he was trying hard to hide. That tiny, insubstantial slip made Ryo feel suddenly --- elated. Like somehow or another, against all odds, he had come out on top in this little game that he and Seiji constantly engaged in. And after weeks of having the shit kicked out of him in a realm not his own, the notion of taking on the role of aggressor was just --- damned appealing. 

"The point is, Seiji, that you need to -- _just -- get_ -- over it. And I will hold whatever grudges I damnwell please and I don't need you to tell me what I should or should not be feeling. As if you have a corner in the emotions department. And I want you to go see the goddamned doctor about your arm."

"My arm is fine." Short, offended declaration. Ryo stalked up to him and punched him square in the place tiger claws had previously raked. 

Seiji went pale. Seiji could not have looked more shocked if Ryo had taken up a gun and started shooting up post offices. Seiji staggered back into the counter, hand going up to his arm, blinking furious and completely reflexive pain tears out of his eyes. 

"It hurt?' Ryo asked.

"Of course it hurts." Seiji hissed. He dug his fingers into his arm and a spot of new blood stained the cotton of his shirt. 

"I'm sorry. I'll drive you to town to have it looked at."

"I don't need you to ---"

"I'll drive you to town to have it looked at." Ryo repeated flatly.

Seiji stared balefully at him. 

"I probably popped the stitches." He added. "You wouldn't want me to have to sew it back up, would you?"

"You hit me."

"Do you still want your tea before we go?"

"You -- hit -- me."

"Yeah -- well, you were being an ass. And you said I should be angry at you." 

"I didn't say to hit me." 

"Well I did and I was and I'm not anymore, so can we go to see the doctor or what?"

". . . . . . . . ."

"Seiji," Ryo placed his hand over Seiji's prying long, pale fingers from the blood splotched shirt. "Please?"

Seiji looked down at his hand still captured in Ryo's. Pale skin against dark. There was blood on his fingers as well.

"You made me bleed, Ryo." It was almost a question. Baffled that Ryo could do such a thing. Ryo was somewhat startled at the fact himself. 

"I'm gonna go and tell Sai to watch and make sure White Blaze stays in, then we'll go, 'kay?"

Slowly, Seiji nodded. 

"Hey!" Rowan with his usual high level of energy, burst into the house, bringing breeze and blown leaves in with him. "Where'd Ryo go?" he asked the house at large, zeroing in on the den where Sai was guiltily watching a daytime soap. 

Hastily and with some embarrassment he turned the channel to the weather station. "It looks as if it's going to rain again tonight." He said, as if he'd been watching all along. Rowan gave him a look, swept a hand at the sprawled form the tiger on the rug before the wood stove and repeated.

"So where's Ryo?"

"He took Seiji to the doctor to see about the scratches."

"God, Seiji let him? Was there much blood involved?"

Sai lifted a brow and said cryptically. "A bit. What did you discover, Rowan?"

"Oh, this and that. Here, brought you a present. How's the cat?" He tossed Sai a tootsie pop with a somewhat crumpled wrapper. Sai looked at the candy, then back up at Rowan. Kento had followed him in, looked at the cat, then at Sai and got a funny look on his face before spinning about without a word and heading for the kitchen. 

Rowan plopped down next to Sai, leaning across him to snag the remote control. He hit previous channel and the trials and tribulations of Pine Valley came to life on the screen. 

"Are we watching the soaps again, love?" Rowan smiled up at him.

Sai blushed and made a grab for the remote. "I was not!"

"Is Erica still a backstabbing floozy?"

"She's not! She's just ---" He glared, caught in the trap. 

"I know, I know. So many men, so little time. So he's got you tiger sitting?"

Rowan leaned in close, taking a breath of Sai's hair. Rowan smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and alcohol. 

"Have you been smoking again?" Sai asked suspiciously. "You promised --"

"I haven't." Rowan insisted, about the time his hand slid up under Sai's shirt to brush against the skin of his belly. 

"You've been drinking, then." Sai accused, then suppressed a giggle as Rowan's fingers touched a sensitive spot. 

"Just one." Rowan said. "Or was it two?"

"Well you smell like a pub. Where have you been?"

Rowan smiled at him, then sat back, retracting all his wondering members. "No where. Just asking questions in town."

"It's awfully early to be drinking."

"I was undercover."

Sai sniffed. "Well, what did you find out?"

Rowan told him. It wasn't much to go on. And it pointed to White Blaze hunting livestock as much as anything. 

"So what now?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'll go out hunting tomorrow and see what I can find."

"Hunting." Sai wrinkled his nose. "Well be careful."

"I'm always careful, Sai." Rowan leaned back in, nuzzling Sai's jaw. Maybe two drinks had gotten him rather friendly this early in the day. But it was quite nice, what he was doing to Sai's ear lobe. 

"Ummm, Rowan -- Kento's just in the kitchen."

"Good."

Which was not exactly the response he had wanted. Rowan sighed against his neck and muttered. "I gotta go take a leak."

He patted Sai's knee and pushed himself up of the couch, heading for the downstairs' bath. Sai sat there, thinking Rowan had had more than two drinks, absently unwrapping the candy pop Rowan had given him. The wrapper stuck a little, as if the thing had sweated. 

He stuck it in his mouth, attention drawn back to the soap while he waited for Rowan to come back. Rowan did, a few minutes later, and stood in the doorway staring wide eyed, with much the same look on his face that Kento had gotten before he'd run for the kitchen.

"What?" Sai said, around the glob of candy in his mouth. 

"Ummm, nothing. Nothing. I think I'm gonna go and check out my hunting bows."

"You don't want to go upstairs?" He was a little disappointed that Rowan's mood had changed so abruptly. 

"Ummm, maybe later. Gotta go."

At which he fled with the guiltiest look on his face. As if he'd done something simply terrible. No matter. It couldn't be that bad and Sai would ferret it out of him tonight. 


	3. Chapter Three

wolves3

Chapter Three

"So what did'ja find out. Rowan?" Ryo haphazardly tossed his keys on the table by the door and they skidded in amidst the accumulated mail and junk that seemed to migrate there. He stepped aside and let Seiji pass by him on the way in before shutting the door and casting Rowan half his attention. 

"Something's out there killing livestock. Don't know if it's White Blaze or not."

"White blaze does not kill livestock, dude." Ryo said, frowning as he followed Seiji's ascent of the stairs with his gaze. 

"Yeah, well what does he eat when he's gone months at a time? He sure as hell don't hit the local butcher."

Ryo didn't bother to grace that with a reply. He walked into the kitchen and laid the small white bag with Seiji's prescriptions on the table. 

"Doc stitch him all up?" Rowan asked, following him in, fiddling with the fletching on a short, cross bow arrow. 

"Yeah. He's infected."

"With what?"

"The scratches, Rowan. Doc, said it was real bad. I guess White Blaze has got a pretty serious set of claws."

"Well, no shit, Ryo. He's a tiger. He's a fuckin' mystical tiger."

"Yeah, well ---" Ryo couldn't think up an answer, couldn't help but feel guilty that his tiger had mauled his --- well, mauled Seiji, when Seiji had only been trying to help. "Doctor gave him some antibiotics and some pain pills and told him to take it easy a few days." Not to mention the fever that Seiji hadn't mentioned and the fact that Ryo felt like a complete shit for hitting him and that Seiji hadn't spoken two sentences to him all the way to and from the doctor's office in town that hadn't been practically forced out of him. Now Rowan suggested White Blaze might be offing livestock. That somebody might have had a reason and a right to shoot at him. If that were the case -- it was just too depressing to think about. 

"So what are you doing, Rowan?" he asked, finally taking in the collection of Rowan's killing material laid out on the kitchen table. 

"Oh, goin' hunting."

"Hunting what?"

Rowan looked up from under his ungainly fall of hair and grinned. "There's something else out there. At least according to the guy that maybe shot White Blaze."

"You _know_ who shot him?" Ryo took a sudden step towards him, fists clenched.

Rowan arched a fine brow. "Yeah, and I'm not telling you, man. The guy wasn't out of bounds. So just live with it. But there was another something that he saw taking off from the scene of the crime. So I'm gonna go out and see what I can turn up. Wanna come?"

Ryo opened his mouth. Shut it thoughtfully, eyeing Rowan's hunting bows. He wasn't much for hunting. He didn't do well with facing down doe eyed things with the contemplation of ending their lives. He had never accompanied Rowan on one of his outings before, but this was different. This was a matter of proving White Blaze innocent.

Slowly he nodded. "Okay, I'm up for it."

Seiji's head hurt. He tried to ignore it, but it came at him from duplicitous angles, slipping past his defenses. The arm throbbed, as if each and everyone of White Blaze's claw marks had a life of its own. He grimaced and settled deeper into the chair, repositioning the book he had been fingering but paying little real attention to. The pain was welcome. It was just recompense for his own stupidity. Ryo's short burst of anger had been justified, even though the method of it had shocked him. He wished Ryo had the capacity to hold onto a grudge for more than the breath it took to air his grievances. It would have made Seiji feel better. It would have reaffirmed his own definitions of righteousness. It would have made the guilt a little less. It might even have alleviated the bitter self-incrimination that he forced upon himself. But he doubted it. There were some things that honor and his sense of responsibility would not let slip away so easily. 

It wasn't so much the decision that bothered him. The choice to release a thing that could have -- and when it got right down to it -- had helped them out of a difficult situation, had not been a bad one. Letting it seep past his control, past his not inconsiderable strength of will -- that was unforgivable. That bothered him to no ends. That kept him from sleeping at night and kept him at odds with Ryo, because Ryo didn't understand. Ryo's sense of honor was not that rigid. Ryo would just as well pretend it hadn't happened and Seiji couldn't do that. He could not, as Ryo had so inelegantly put it this morning, let it go. 

He looked out the window, at an afternoon shaded by a curtain of clouds. It was likely to rain. He felt the oppression in the air. He could just see the battered chassis of Kento's car, the hood up, Kento himself immersed under it. He and Rowan had been long gone by the time Ryo had bullied Seiji into having the wounds looked at. Seiji was surprised every time the chevy made it back all parts intact. He rather missed the sight of his shiny, new car in the driveway.There was a soft knock on his door. He didn't bother to answer, but the door opened anyway and Ryo slid halfway in, fingers holding to the edge of it like it was a shield. Like he needed protection from Seiji's miserable self. 

"Umm, Rowan an' me are going hunting."

Seiji lifted a brow. Ryo didn't hunt. He refrained from stating the obvious. Ryo would get around to explaining. Ryo did. 

"He thinks there might be some rogue animal out there killing livestock and that's why White Blaze got shot at. We're gonna go look. Just wanted you to know, is all. If you need anything, I told Sai what the doc said."

Wonderful. All he needed was Sai with a nursing mission. Seiji sighed and folded the page down on the book. 

"It's going to storm."

Ryo's brows drew, he glanced out the window warily. "Is it?"

"Just -- be careful, all right?"

Ryo blinked at him, surprised at the warning. Or perhaps surprised at the weary tone of Seiji's voice. Then he broke into a grin, that beautiful, blinding smile of his that always made Seiji stare in spite of himself. 

"When am I not?" And he went away, much more confident than he'd come. Seiji shut his eyes and wondered why he felt uneasy. Probably the blood poisoning. 

They drove a good ways from home, out to the general territory where a good deal of the livestock slaughtering had happened. The localization made sense. A predator set up territory. A predator defended it. 

"You know, this isn't that far from where I wrecked Seiji's car." Ryo remarked, as he pulled the jeep off the side of the road onto a leaf covered strip of siding. It wasn't. Maybe five miles back down the highway. It made him nervous thinking about it. He focused his attention on pulling gear out of the back of the jeep. Not a lot of gear. Just a canteen that would clip onto his belt and one of his sharper practice Katana's. He wasn't a bowman, though he wasn't half bad at hitting what he aimed at. One had to figure that anything that Rowan couldn't take down with one shot, might have to be dealt with close up. The sword was better for close encounters. He strapped it onto his back, and waited for Rowan to finish sorting his gear, putting various odd items into the pockets of his quilted hunting vest. He had a quiver of white fletched bolts at his side, fastened to his belt like a holster, and a sleek, twin release cross bow in his hand. He announced himself ready to proceed. 

Through the woods they tromped. Past the initial undergrowth at the edge of the highway and into the shadowed, muffled quiet of the forest. Pine needles and browned leaves silenced their footsteps. He had vague, wavery visions of being hauled through the woodlands of hell not so long ago,. Indistinct memories filled with pain and disorientation. He had not been at his best during that trek. The nightmarish creatures of hell had seen to that. 

"I think there's a game trail about a mile that way." Rowan indicated a direction. "That's as good a place to head as any."

Ryo let him take the lead. Rowan was the hunter. Rowan knew the woods. Rowan, who was generally very chatty and not quiet doing it, kept his silences. And when he did speak, it was softly. His eyes were very attentive to the nuances of the wood. He pointed out various things to Ryo. The track of a deer here, the huddled form of a roosting owl there. Ryo never would have seen them. 

"How many people have lost animals?" he asked, automatically using the same soft voice that Rowan had taken up. It seemed criminal to break the vast silence of the forest. 

Rowan told him what he'd learned in town that morning. Rowan told him about the strip club and demented little present he had brought back home to Sai.

"Rowan, you are such a prick."

Rowan shook his head, a helpless grin splitting his face. "Oh, man, I wasn't gonna let him eat it. I swear. I just went to the bathroom for like two minutes and came back and he had the thing in his mouth. I almost died."

"You will die when he finds out."

"He's not gonna find out. Because you can keep a secret."

Ryo canted him a look. "Dude, that is so awful."

Rowan's shoulders shook with laughter. He clamped an arm across Ryo's shoulders, using him for support. "I know. I had to avoid him like the plague all afternoon, 'cause there was no way I was gonna keep a straight face."

"If Kento knows, Sai will sooner or later." Ryo predicted. "Kento can't keep a secret."

Rowan glanced up at him, frowning thoughtfully, then the grin seeped back. "I am soooo in trouble."

"No shit."

"At least I didn't hit him."

Ryo sniffed. "It just sorta happened. He pissed me off.'

"Yeah, that happens."

"I popped two stitches and he was bleeding all over the place by the time we got to the doctor's office. It was really weird though, instead of getting angry he just sort of backed down and got really --- cooperative."

"Ha, maybe you ought to hit him more often."

"That's not funny, dude." 

Rowan opened his mouth to reply, then paused, his eyes traveling past Ryo's head.

"What?" Ryo turned to follow his stare. He was looking at a pine tree upon which were a series of deep rakes placed about two feet above Ryo's head. 

"What're those?" he asked warily. They were very widely spaced marks, wider than White Blaze's claws.

"Bear marks?" it was almost a question. Rowan stepped closer to the tree staring up at the marks. "Damn, they're high up. And big. I didn't think anything roaming these woods had that reach. Not too old either." He moved back looking around the ground for tracks. But there were none. Rowan shook his head and started off.

"C'mon, lets keep moving."

Ryo paused a moment, still staring at the marks, then followed. A droplet of water sifted down past the leafy canopy to strike his hand. A few spatters moistened the leaves. Not heavy rain, but sporadic fine mist that gathered on the leaves and dripped down. He had no notion how far into the forest they had trekked. He thought about asking Rowan, but Rowan seemed suddenly engrossed in the woodland around them. Rowan did not seem to mind, or even notice the rain. Ryo followed in silence, taking more of an interest himself. Noticing all of the natural hiding places, the leafy foliage that sprang up in clumps between trees, waist high in places, the dark thorny bramble that an animal might force its way through but not a man. Fallen trees, moss covered and rotting, some hollowed out, some falling to pieces, eaten by time and insects. He had a sudden apprehension about snakes living in the lees of such logs. 

"Rowan." He called softly, now very interested in watching the ground where he stepped. "Are there snakes around here?"

"Hummm? Oh, some. Most of 'em aren't poisonous."

"Oh. Great." 

"Fuck." Rowan said.

"What?" Ryo almost reached for his katana. 

"What in hell's that?" Rowan had started trotting forward. Whatever he had seen did not have him arming his bow, so Ryo figured it couldn't be that dangerous. He kept his hand from the hilt of his sword and followed. 

There was a large dark lump half obscured by the ferny foliage ahead. The smell of rotting flesh became painfully apparent after a few steps. The rain, had chased away some of the flying insects, but the crawling ones still roamed freely. All Ryo saw at first glance was gaping flesh and crawling maggots before he gagged and took a few hasty steps backwards. Rowan had a stronger stomach. Rowan leaned over the carcass, muttering curses.

"Sonuvabitch, this reeks." 

"What the hell is it?" Ryo kept a distance of a few feet, peering through the ferns at the portions of it that were easily visible. 

"Its a fucking bear. Its a big fucking bear. Something ripped it to shreds. Will you look at this?"

"You look at it. Its making me sick."

Rowan cast a glance over his shoulder. "Sissy. Like you haven't seen a little blood before."

"Yeah, well the maggots make it, okay?"

"Maggots. Snakes. How'd you ever survive the Dynasty being so squeamish?"

"Shut the fuck up, Rowan." Ryo growled and forced himself to step forward and look down at the carcass. It had been shredded but not eaten. Not by anything big at any rate. It looked like little things had been working at it. He tried to avoid the details and looked at Rowan's intense profile instead. 

"So what hunts bears?"

"Men." Rowan said bluntly. 

A man hadn't done this. Bullets didn't make wounds like this. 

"Look. Whatever did it, crushed its freakin' skull. Popped the eyes right out of the sockets."

Ryo took a breath. Gagged on the smell and had to back away. For some reason, a fleeting vision of the thing in his dream came back to him. Huge, fleetfooted -- predatory in the extreme. Something out of hell. God, but they were close to where the gateway to hell had been. Held open all that time by the power of their armors. 

"Rowan," he asked softly, eyes flickering about the trees and all the enigmatic shadows. "Do you think something could have -- slipped through the gateway from hell before we got back?"

Rowan's head snapped up. His eyes flashed almost indignantly. "Oh, don't go morbid and superstitious on me. Nothing came through. It was all we could do to open the damn thing again, remember?"

"I had a dream ----"

"And you'll probably have a bunch more, Ryo. You got fucked up. You're gonna have nightmares. It doesn't mean anything. It got in a fight with another bear, is all. A bigger bear."

"The one that made those marks back there?"

"Yeah, maybe." Rowan's breathing was harsh. He stepped back from the carcass. "Its gotta be." 

"How old is this kill?"

"I dunno. A couple a days from the smell."

"Why hasn't it been scavenged more than it has?'

Rowan swallowed nervously. "I dunno, Ryo. It ought to have been."

"Maybe something has scared off all the other animals."

It is sorta -- quiet." Rowan reluctantly agreed. He tightened his hand on the cross bow. 

It was getting dark. Ryo suddenly had the very strong desire not to be out here in the dark. "Maybe we should start back. Come out again tomorrow?"

Before Rowan could answer a crack of thunder split the air, reverberating through the forest, making the very ground shake. Rowan jumped, whirling about in alarm, eyes gone a little wild. 

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." He ground out, catching his breath. The rain started in earnest, as if the thunder had been a signal to release the deluge. 

"Lets go back, Rowan." Ryo yelled through the sudden, violent downpour. Leaves and small branches came down with the rain, buffeted by a wind that wailed out of nowhere. His hair plastered to his face and neck, his clothes hung heavy and dripping all in a matter of minutes. Faintly he could still hear the occasional curse from Rowan, as they pelted through the woods. 

With the rain, came a concealment of late afternoon light. The forest was cast in a rain shrouded gloom. A crack of thunder and again the ground shook. Where ever the lightening had hit, it was close. Rowan caught Ryo's arm when he veered the wrong way, steering him back on course. He could hardly see Rowan through the downpour. A sudden flash of brilliant light and the deafening boom of thunder. Lightening hit a tree not twenty feet in front of them. Ryo yelped and skidded to a halt, dragging Rowan with him. The both of them went down, knees buried in the wet mulch the storm had made of the ground, blind and covering their ringing ears. The tree screeched as wood splintered and crashed to the earth. It was only luck that it fell away from them. Even through the rain the smell of burning wood was thick. 

Ryo pushed dripping hair out of his eyes, blinked repeatedly to clear them of dancing spots and looked up in time to see something moving in the darkness. Something large and silent that smelled of wet fur. 

"God." He clutched at Rowan's arm, hauling him up, scanning the woods for another sight of whatever it was he'd seen lurking the shadows. 

"Something's out there."

"What? Where?" Rowan scrubbed at his eyes with his knuckles, shaking the hair out of his face. 

"I dunno. I saw something moving through the trees."

Cautiously, Rowan pulled a pair of arrows from his quiver and loaded them into the cross bow. Ryo drew his blade, a sibilant whisper of steel sliding against steel. The heft of it felt good in his hand. It made him feel safer. Made him feel like predator instead of prey. 

Nothing moved in the woods. No sound save for the rhythmic fall of rain, the rustling of leaves and branches overhead. 

"Rowan," he asked softly, totally bereft of any sense of direction. "Which way?"

It took Rowan a moment to get his bearings. Ryo had no notion how he did it, in darkness and confusion. 

"That way." He gestured with the crossbow. 

Through deluge and darkness they started moving again. 


	4. Chapter Four

wolves4

Chapter Four

Thunder rumbled and the panes in the windows rattled. It was dark early, the sky obscured by rain and treacherous, fast moving, black clouds. Seiji stared out the window in the den, ignoring the steady whistle of the tea pot, flinching just a little when the next strike made the whole of the house shake. 

They were late. They were stupid for staying out when the afternoon began hazing with the gray, static air of approaching storm. It was the season for such storms. The rain battered the earth. Dashed the shrubbery and trees outside the house with its force. He leaned his forehead against the cold glass, irritated that between the two of them, Ryo and Rowan hadn't the sense to have given up long ago at hunting down some evasive, possibly non-existence predator and come home. 

Ryo didn't want to believe White Blaze was capable. Seiji thought that a tiger was a tiger, regardless and a bit of plump sheep was as appealing as any of the lesser wild game he might hunt. They tended to forget that the creature was not, after all, a great lumbering house cat. Seiji's arm throbbed from such indifference. It hurt when he moved it. It felt swollen and hot, it itched. He lifted a hand to graze the whole flesh below the wound, as close as he dared come to the actual damage itself. Even that jarred. 

"Does it hurt?" Sai came up behind him, peering at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes, holding the lip of a saucer with a handless, ceramic tea cup on it. Seiji's favorite cup. Seiji's favorite brand of tea from the smell. The kettle had stopped its insistent whining without him noticing. 

"Do you want?" Sai asked, offering the cup and saucer. Seiji nodded, taking it with his good hand. 

"Thank you." Softly, He couldn't raise the cup without taking the saucer in his other hand. He lifted the arm and winced. Sai winced with him. 

"It does hurt, doesn't it. Have you taken a pain pill yet?"

"I don't need one, Sai." Seiji carefully sat the saucer down on the windowsill. 

"Nonsense. The doctor wouldn't have given them to you, if you didn't need them. Whyever are you so stubborn about such things, Seiji?"

"I don't need them." He did not raise his voice to Sai. He kept his tone and his eyes devoid of annoyance. There was a certain residue guilt from what he had perpetrated upon Sai as well, but it was hazier than the one he felt over Ryo. He had not really been there when Sai had been hurt by his hand. He only had what they told him of the incident to go on. 

"They ought to be back by now." He changed the subject. Sai was easy to lead, when it came to things concerning Rowan. He stepped up to the window next to Seiji, peering out through the rivulets of water. 

"It is rather nasty out, isn't it? What time is it?"

On reflex Seiji lifted his wrist to see and ground his teeth at the stab of discomfort. Sai lifted a brow at him, a distinct, _I told you so_, look in his green eyes. Seiji brought the arm up the rest of the way to spite both Sai and his own incapacity. 

"Almost seven." 

Sai frowned, then shook his head, ridding himself of doubtless pessimistic imaginings. "They're probably just waiting out the storm. Rowan has an affinity for the woods. They're okay. Most likely wet and miserable, but okay."

"Who's wet and miserable?" Kento came tromping down the stairs, damp haired, shirtless with a towel about his neck. He'd been caught out in the downpour working on the wretched pile of rusting metal that was his car. He'd come in as drenched as if he'd taken a plunge into the lake. 

"Rowan and Ryo." Sai explained. 

"Oh." Kento shrugged. "They'll survive. Sooooo," He got a strange, leering sort of look on his face. "what flavor was yours?"

"My what?" Sai asked blankly. 

Kento sputtered a little, as if he'd swallowed a gnat. "Ummmm., your tootsie pop?"

Sai blinked at him, completely baffled. "Cherry. Why?"

"N-nuthin'. Just wondering." He staggered into the kitchen, making suspicious sounds behind his hand. Sai narrowed his eyes and glanced to Seiji. 

"What was that all about?"

Seiji hadn't the slightest interest. Seiji thought he was very well on the verge of driving himself to distraction, worrying about a thing he could not even securely pin down. Anxiety did not usually afflict him. Standing here, staring into the storm achieved nothing. It made his head as well as his body ache. He thought the therapy of a hot bath might ease both pains. 

"I'm going to fix soup for supper, do you want some?" Sai asked.

"Later." Seiji handed him the cup. "I'm going to go upstairs and soak. If Ryo gets back, tell him to come let me know."

*

Rowan was mud covered from a fall down a slope turned unstable and slick. He'd bruised his knee on a root on the way down, and limped slightly as a result. He was wet to the point that dry was a foreign, peculiar concept. Even his waterproof vest was soaked through. He'd given up trying to wipe the water out of his eyes and just blinked away the accumulated droplets from his lashes. He was lost. So very, embarrassingly lost, turned around by the storm and the darkness and a mad, wild rush to chase after whatever Ryo thought he had seen in the forest. He didn't want to admit it, but he supposed Ryo had figured it out by now. 

Ryo sloshed when he walked. Ryo's long hair was plastered to his face and neck. He wasn't quite at dirty as Rowan. He'd kept his feet by some miracle of grace and luck down the same slope that had tumbled Rowan head over heels, coating him bodily with mud, leaves and debris. He had his sword out still, and that determined look in those black rimmed blue eyes of his that said very clearly that his ire was up and damned if he was going to let a little thing like a storm deter him when he had the scent of a challenge. Besides, Rowan had dared to suggest that maybe what he'd seen had been a trick of eyes shocked by lightening strike, of tree limbs whipping in the storm winds, of darkness and shadow. Ryo hadn't liked that much. Had stared hard at Rowan, with water dripping off the tip of his nose and declared that Rowan could go home if he wanted, but he was going after whatever it was he had seen. 

So of course, Rowan was stuck tromping through the rain after him. Which was just as well, since he wasn't certain which direction home was anyway. 

"What's that?" Ryo called back to him past the rain and the rustling of branches. Rowan perked up, listening for the anomaly. And heard it above the howl of the wind. A distant, keening wail, like something in pain. Desperate, mindless pain. 

It struck some primal chord of panic in him, that pitiful cry through the storm. He grabbed after Ryo's arm and caught a handful of sodden flannel shirt. 

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, okay? We don't know what it is."

"That's the point of going to see." Ryo shook off his fingers, on a fucking mission now and mindless of caution. Rowan cursed and followed, drawing an arrow placing it in the cross bow, watching the woods around them, since Ryo's attention was focused inexorably forward. 

Lightening flashed and they saw it. Something dark and thrashing on the ground, squealing in agony and fighting against the insurmountable jaws of a great steal trap. It was a deer. A young doe by the size, one of her fragile legs shattered within the strong teeth of the trap. 

"Shit." Rowan said softly, shaking his head. He hated traps. He hadn't known there were hunters placing them around. It made walking the woods at night suddenly a much more dangerous prospect. He lifted the cross bow towards the thrashing, wild eyed animal. 

"Rowan -- no." Ryo put out a hand in horror. "What are you doing?"

"Ryo -- she's dead anyway. Can't let her just suffer."

Ryo blinked, shuddering. He drew his hand away slowly. 

Rowan took a breath and released the bolt --- 

---and something cracked like a mini smack of thunder through the woods. It was too quick for him to even register, the time between his release of the bolt and the sharp boom. Ryo moved, a reflexive snap of his arm as he brought the blade up. He staggered a step backwards, sword almost snapped from his hand. Rowan felt a sharp sting on his cheek a breath after the sound had faded. He lifted a hand to touch the spot. Drew it away and saw blood before the rain washed it off his skin.

"What the fuck---? What the fuck --" He yelled it the second time, with the dawning realization that somebody had shot at them. 

"We're not goddamned fucking deer, you asshole." He screamed into the darkness. 

"What?" Ryo was still uncertain what had happened.

"Somebody shot me."

Ryo blinked at him, then held up his blade. "That wasn't a bullet." He said, running a hand along the edge. There was a chip out of the blunt side, where the blade itself had deflected the gunpowder borne missile. The chip of steel was what had hit Rowan's cheek. Better that, he thought sourly, than a bullet. 

"That was goddamned fast." He muttered.

Ryo just shook his head, as if he were a bit amazed that he'd managed it himself. 

There was a rustling in the woods across from them. A human form, in a camouflage rain slicker and a rifle held cautiously at ready, emerged from the brush. 

"Man, you are so fucking lucky that missed." Rowan stalked forward as far as the now still doe. "Every hear of taking a second to look before you shoot."

"What're you boys doing out here this time of night?" A belligerent voice came back at them. 

"Hunting. Same as you." Rowan shot back.

The shadowed face under the slicker took in Rowan's cross bow, stared longer at Ryo's katana. 

"Hunting what?"

Rowan recognized the voice. It had not been that many hours ago that he'd talked to this man at the strip club in town. 

"Drummond?" he asked. "You Vic Drummond?"

"Yeah. Hey, you're that kid that was askin' me questions this morning."

"Yeah. I guess neither one of us liked the answers, huh?"

"What're you out there looking for, kid, if you think it was your dog I shot yesterday?"

Rowan shrugged. Ryo went a little tense.

"You shot White Blaze?"

"If it was on my property, then I got the right to shoot it."

"You shot White Blaze."

"This your trap?" Rowan asked to distract him.

"Yeah, its my trap. What of it?"

"How many more you got lying around here?"

"None of your business."

Rowan drew back his lips in a patently false smile, ready to tell the bastard how very much it was his business to know where the things were in order to avoid the same fate as the hapless doe, but something shifted in the thick brush behind Drummond. Something that towered tall enough that at first he thought it was a shifting wall of thick vines or a small tree bending with the wind. But trees didn't snake out arms the size of a man's torso with gleaming curved claws the size of banana's and snag a body off its feet and jerk it back into the darkness. 

Drummond didn't even have the chance to scream. Just an aborted shocked expulsion of air as the claws went through rain slicker and clothes and pierced the body underneath, causing blood to spurt and making a distinct ripping sound of both cloth and softer flesh and muscle. 

It happened so quick that all of those things were merely flashes of imagery. Rowan stood for a shocked moment, hands clenched on the slick fiberglass of the crossbow. He couldn't even draw the breath to curse. 

Instead he thought over and over in panic. _That was not a fucking bear. That was not a fucking bear. That was not a fucking bear. _

*

White Blaze whined at the kitchen door. He looked up at Sai demandingly, cold feline eyes sparking with insistence. Sai waved a wooden spoon at him and chided.

"You're not going out in this weather, you bad cat. You've got a bullet hole in you and Ryo would kill me if I let you out." 

The tiger's ears twitched back in irritation. He padded back through the kitchen into the den with a definite sulk to his stride. Sai went back to his soup. The wind changed direction outside and drove rain against the window over the sink. Sai frowned at it, beginning to worry a little himself about Rowan and Ryo caught out there. Suppose they'd been hit by lightening? Suppose a tree had fallen on them? Suppose they'd been in a wreck on the way back? The memory of Seiji's crumpled car was still a nasty image in his mind. 

He shook his head to clear it of those unsavory thoughts, and scooped the handful of green onions he'd been chopping into the pot. Kento came into the kitchen and leaned over his shoulder to look into the pot.

"Smells good. I want cheese toast with mine."

"You know where the oven is." 

"Yeah, but you make it better." 

Which was true. Kento could make a mess of the simplest recipe, but on the upside, he'd eat it whether it was burned, runny or lacking proper ingredients.

"Its getting late." Kento leaned against the sink, crossing thick arms across his chest, his foray after food momentarily forgotten. 

"I know. I'm beginning a worry. If it wasn't so nasty outside, it wouldn't be nearly as bad."

Kento nodded. "I'm thinking, that if they're not back in a little while, I'll ride out and see if I can spot the jeep."

"Oh, that would be a lovely idea. I'm sure everything's fine, but --"

"Yeah, yeah, I know -- better safe than sorry, huh? Hurry up with my cheese bread then."

Kento wondered into the den and the sound of the television announced he'd settled himself on the couch. Seiji came down not long after, looking as irritable as White Blaze and as restless. One assumed his soak hadn't helped. He hadn't quite taken the time to dry his hair and the damp ends created spots of wetness on the shoulders of the blue silk robe he'd donned. There was something a little feverish in his eyes that made Sai chew his lip in worry. 

"Have you taken your medicine yet?"

Seiji gave him a long warning look. Sai sniffed and reached for the bottle of antibiotics, reading the label for himself. "You really ought to follow the perception."

Seiji held out his hand for the bottle silently.

"It's a childproof cap. Would you like me to open it for you?"

Which got a nastier look, then a sigh and a nod. 

"Do you want one of the pain pills, too."

"No."

Argument was futile. Sai opened the bottle with only minor difficulties and handed Seiji one of the large green pills. 

"Oh, my you shouldn't take things like that with alcohol." Sai admonished when Seiji got a bottle of his favorite chilled wine from the refrigerator. Of course he was ignored. Seiji downed the pill and took the rest of the glass of wine out of the kitchen to join Kento in the den. 

Sai scowled, his sense of justice offended. No one ever listened to good advice. No one ever listened to his advice in particular. It was quite clear that Seiji's arm was hurting him and he was too stubborn to take the easy way out. Like it was more honorable and manly to just endure pain when a nice little pill would take it away for you. Sai would have jumped for such a pill when he was in hell with a broken wrist. Would have very happily gone and begged one of the local doctor if the transference through the gateway back to the mortal realm hadn't miraculously healed all their various wounds. 

Seiji was just being stubborn. Seiji hadn't the slightest notion what was best for him. Sai picked up the bottle of pain pills. Hydrocodine. 1000 mg. Take every six hours as needed. Oh, codine was good. Sai liked codine. He had the most lovely codine laced cough syrup that made him feel ever so good after he'd swallowed the stuff. 

He opened the bottle and spilled one of the capsules into his palm. Seiji would thank him, if Seiji knew, but more than likely Seiji would just start to feel better and be none the wiser. Sai opened the capsule and let the white powder fall to the bottom of an empty soup bowl, then hurriedly ladled a portion of steaming soup overtop it. He stirred and took an experimental taste. One could hardly tell and he was looking for a suspicious bitterness. 

He loaded up another bowl for Kento and placed the two and a platter of cheese toast on a tray and took it into the den, feeling only slightly criminal. Seiji was in the armchair by the window, paying more heed to the rain outside than he was to the TV. Kento made a grab for the cheese bread and Sai carefully handed him the non-doctored bowl of soup. He took the tray over to Seiji and asked cheerfully.

"Would you like a cup of hot tea with this?"

Seiji held out the empty wine glass. "A refill, if you don't mind."

"Ummm, I drank the rest." One really ought not to take drugs and wine together. 

Sai smiled. Seiji stared at him.

"Well, it looked good and -- and it was hot over the stove. Tea?"

"Tea." Seiji agreed after a moment. 

Sai hurried back into the kitchen, making sure Seiji was still seated before grabbing the wine and emptying it quickly down the drain. He hesitated with the last dollop, then swallowed it himself. He truly hated having to be furtive. Rowan would laugh at him about the whole thing. Rowan wouldn't blink an eye at spiking a drink. Not that Sai had spiked anything. Not really. This was only for Seiji's own good. 

The tiger was scratching at the door again, a low whining growl emanating from his throat. He wanted out bad, like there was something scurrying about the yard that only he could sense and needed vitally to go out and pounce upon and consume. 

"You had dinner." Sai chided. "You're not going out." 

*

"I'm going out." Kento stuffed the last of the cheese toast into his mouth and rose, dusting the crumbs from his hands off on the sofa arm. Seiji drew his brows in disapproval, a spoonful of soup halfway to his lips. 

"Be careful." Sai stuck his head out from the kitchen. Sai was in a fit of nervous energy. Sai was flustered and Sai was doing a lot of pacing from room to room. 

Seiji didn't say anything. It was useless to wish Kento to be careful if he were going out in that dreadful car of his. All one could do was hope the fates were kind and might look out for his well being yet one more time. 

Sai followed Kento to the front door, pestering him about taking a rainslicker and an umbrella and driving the speed limit and watching out for floods in low spots of the road. Sai, Seiji often thought, had probably been a old Jewish mother in his last life. 

Seiji flexed his arm, trying to work out the stiffness. It was still angry and inflamed, it made the whole of his body feel hot. It made all his muscles ache. He wondered if Ryo had felt like this when he'd been poisoned by the lythos in hell. Worse probably. A great deal worse. Ironic that he sported a similar injury. At least his soul wasn't in jeopardy. 

He sighed and rose with distinct lack of his usual grace. Into the kitchen and he could still hear Sai lecturing Kento and Kento goodnaturely agreeing to things he would immediately ignore he moment he was out the door. Kento and Rowan were like that. They had a penchance for catering to Sai's idiosyncrasies to his face to appease him and then doing exactly what they wanted once his attention was fixed elsewhere. Well, Rowan was a little more circumspect about it. He had to put up with Sai's sulks when Sai found out his helpful advice had not been heeded. Rowan had more reason to want to keep Sai sulk-free. 

Seiji didn't particularly care. But tonight, he thought wearily that bending to Sai's pestering might not be such a bad thing. One of the wretched pain pills would not be that much of an admission of weakness. It might even clear his head. 

The struggle with the hideous child-proof cap made him sweat. He swallowed the pill with the last of his luke warm tea sat the empty cup on the counter by the sink. After turning the fire on to heat water for another cup he went back to the den, sat down on the couch that Kento had abandoned and flipped the television to the weather channel. 

Rain, rain and more rain was all the forecast promised. Seiji ran his good hand through his hair, staring morosely out the window. The tiger was pacing, making low whining sounds. It made Seiji edgy. The thunder did. 

"Seiji?"

He blinked, not having heard Sai come up. Sai stood between him and the television, offering him the cup of tea. Sai had one of his own. Sai sat down beside him on the couch and took the remote. He flipped through the channels until he found one of the prime time soaps he liked to watch and sat there sipping tea, the remote held securely in his hand, as if he were afraid to let it go in case an emergency channel change was in order. One supposed he was used to guarding the thing from Rowan, who was a notoriously irritating channel surfer. 

"Oh, this is one of my favourites." Sai felt the need to explain to Seiji. Seiji looked back towards the window, absently sipping the tea, not paying the least bit of attention to Sai's running commentary about this character's mid-life crisis or that one's suspicion of his best friend carrying on an affair with his girl. 

He took another sip of tea and surprisingly enough it was cool. He stared down at the half empty cup, mildly baffled that it had lost temperature so quickly. The fingers holding it felt numb. The torn, stitched up and fevered arm was hardly noticeable. His head drooped a little, hair sliding into his face. He couldn't quite summon the desire to brush it back, or lift his head for that matter. On some lower level, the slow gathering lethargy frightened him. The desire to shut his eyes and fall into a deep, all consuming sleep was overwhelming. Welcoming. 

*

"Goddamnit, Ryo. Will you wait?"

Ryo paused reluctantly, flinging wet hair out of his eyes to glare back at Rowan. Rowan stabbed the dangerous end of the cross bow in the direction the _thing_ that had come out of the woods to snatch its human prey had fled. 

"What?" impatiently.

"That was not a goddamned bear." 

Rowan had already said that. A number of times. Ryo stared at him through darkness and rain, waiting for Rowan to say something a little more beneficial to the situation. Rowan just sputtered and looked spooked.

"I know its not a bear, Rowan."

"Well what the fuck was it?"

Rowan cursed a great deal when he was upset. Rowan was cursing fluently now. 

"I don't know."

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Ryo, just say it. You think maybe something did slip through the gate before we closed it?"

"Maybe. Rowan, we can't let it get away. That man ---"

"Is fucking shish-kabob. Dead dead dead. I'm armoring up. I'm not traipsing around out here and having that thing do that to me."

"Fine. Whatever."

"I thought nothing could cross over. I heard that from somebody there."

"That's bull shit." Ryo was moving again and Rowan followed. "Something came through and got me. Two something's."

"I'm gonna armor up." Rowan repeated.

Ryo didn't answer. Ryo heard something in the brush to the right. He darted that way, tearing through bramble and drooping vines. Something dark and fast reared up out of the shadows. There was the smell of blood and wet fur, but no sound. No animal growls, no harsh breath. An arm the size of his body swiped out and he skidded feet first in the leaves, slamming up against thick, backwards bent legs, like he was sliding for home. He sliced out with the katana and it cut through fur, but not flesh. Light flared above him, and with a resounding, thunder loud crack a far from mundane arrow exploded against the form towering over him. 

For a split second, between arrow's charge and explosion, Ryo got an unhindered look of the thing. Not pretty. Not pretty at all. Twice a man's height at least, if it weren't haunched over. Thick, tawny fur covered its body, from it's long, man-like arms, to the vaguely canine shaped head that sported teeth that put White Blaze to shame. It didn't seem to have a neck, just a muscled body that sloped up into a head. Small, pointed ears and eyes that were almost obscured by fur, but gleamed with frightening --- intelligence. 

Then the explosion blinded him, made him reflexively throw up his arms to cover his face and curse himself for not armoring up when Rowan had so desperately wanted to. He expected pieces of the thing to shower down on him. Most fleshly things would, hit by one of Strata's arrows. This thing didn't. It staggered back a step. Shook itself as if to clear its head, then let out a hoarse, hissing growl and leapt over Ryo towards the archer. 

And Rowan was too damned close to effectively get off another shot. 

*

Sai caught the cup before it could fall out of Seiji's hand. Sai caught Seiji as he slumped bonelessly sideways, and had a time juggling the cup and keeping Seiji from sliding off the couch. The cup clattered to the end table, cold tea sloshing onto the pile of Rowan's Playstation magazines scattered there. Seiji's head lolled on his shoulder. Seiji's eyelashes -- what he could see of them through the fall of pale hair -- were fluttering against his cheeks. Seiji was quite thoroughly out cold and Sai had the somewhat alarming thought that he'd somehow misread the dosage on the painkillers and given his friend a dangerous overdose. But no, he was certain he'd read correctly. He'd been very careful in his clandestine mission of mercy. Perhaps it was the glass of wine. Perhaps Seiji was just exhausted and sick. He was quite, quite warm. Sai tilted him back and slipped his hand under the thick bangs to feel Seiji's forehead. Seiji didn't protest. Those ice blue eyes did not slit open and give Sai a look of death for daring to make such a overtly motherly gesture. 

"Seiji? Seiji?"

No response. 

He sat there for a moment, both arms around the victim of his kindness, wondering what he ought to do. Whether he ought to give the doctor a ring and ask whether he ought to be unduly worried? Whether he ought to force Seiji awake and make him walk the drug off. He'd seen people do that on the telly when overdoses were involved. Make a body walk about, or force them into cold showers. But Seiji didn't seem to be gasping his last breath and his color was good. Seiji made a low sound and moved a little, shifting his head against Sai's shoulder. He smelled rather nice. Whatever he'd put in his bathwater to soak in still lingered on his skin and in his hair. Seiji had a taste or far off exotic scents. Subtle and curious, just enough to make a body want to take a step closer to him to figure out what it was he wore. Sometimes Ryo carried a hint of the fragrance around, if he'd spent the night between Seiji's sheets. 

Sai decided he wasn't in danger of expiring. He slipped out from under Seiji's weight and arranged him on the couch - there was no graceful way for him to get him upstairs and into his own bed alone and he could sleep it off here as well as there.

He went and double checked the instructions on the prescription anyway, just for his own peace of mind, and decided that it had to be the wine. Restless and worried now on several fronts, Sai went out onto the front porch, careful not to let White Blaze slip out past him when he opened the door. 

The big old porch creaked when he walked on it and rain rolled down the roof to pour out of the gutters. The sound of it was a steady, numbing patter, a merciless downpour that was hidden by the night. The weak porch light barely bit into the darkness. Sai wrapped his arms about himself and shivered, caught in a cold blast of water laced wind. 

Stupid to worry, he told himself. Stupid to let the weather and night make him jumpy. It wasn't as if Rowan and Ryo couldn't take care of themselves. It wasn't as if Kento wouldn't find them -- perhaps stuck on the side of the road somewhere -- and haul the lot of them back home. It wasn't like there was any mortal thing in this world that couldn't be overcome by the mystic armors at their beck and call. 

Nothing at all like that. 

*

_So, Rowan, how's it feel to be knocked on your ass, with a big ol' hellbeast trying its damnedest to rip out your guts? Why, it's just the bestest feeling in the world, Rowan, wish I could experience it everyday, just to get the blood pumping. _

Rowan lay on his back, carrying on this conversation with himself for the few precious seconds it took to get his breathing under control and his hands to stop shaking. His hands clutched dirt and leaves, the bow being somewhere buried in debris off to the side and out of his reach. Mystical arrows didn't do a hell of a lot of good when the beasties were right in his face. The thing had hit him with enough force to feel through the armor -- and that was saying a lot. Had knocked him flat on his back and proceeded to try to rip his throat out with those damned vicious teeth while attempting to disembowel him with back and front claws. Of course the armor had repelled those attempts, but it didn't mean he hadn't been scared shitless while it was happening. 

It hadn't lasted long. Not even long enough for Ryo to gain his feet and come at the thing from behind. Just a couple of frantic indrawn breaths-- more than enough time for the thing to have carved up anybody not encased in mystic Ronin armor -- and then it was gone. And Rowan lay there with rain dripping into his face, stunned.

There was a movement, the sound of moist leaves shuffling and he flinched, but it was just Ryo's dark sillhuette and Ryo's very steady hand held out to offer him assistance up. 

"Will you call up your goddamned armor?" he smacked the hand away, sitting up a little awkwardly-- the armor was not the most flexible choice of attire a body could wear -- and blindly feeling around for his bow. "If I have ta cart you back in chunks, I'm gonna be pissed, let me tell you."

"You didn't make a dent in it, Rowan." Ryo pointed out. You hit it dead on and it just shook it off. What the hell is it?" 

"Its a fucking hell beast. I thought we'd established that."

"Yeah. Well, what's it want?"

"It wants ta fucking eat us, man. Jesus Christ, Ryo, will you call up your fucking armor? The fucking thing's out there somewhere."

"Rowan, calm down."

"You calm down. It didn't try to rip your face off. God, I think it drooled all over me. Yuck!" 

"Okay." Ryo said softly, and a nimbus glow surrounded him briefly, obliterating his shape for a moment as the armor formed around him. And then the two of them were metal encased and prickly with weapons. Rowan felt better for it. 

"It went that way." Ryo indicated with a jerk of his chin. "Let's find it."

*

Sai broke out a chunk of Kento's handmade and rather expensive fudge for lack of anything else to do. He nibbled at the overtly rich stuff and leafed through a magazine at the kitchen table. He'd finished the package of shortbread wafers with his tea and the fudge was the only other sweet thing in the house -- unless Kento had something hidden upstairs in his room -- and Sai had a craving. He propped his chin in his palm, skimming over an article about what this Spice Girl was doing now and what that one was planning on doing in the future. The pictures were atrocious. The article was invasive and sarcastic, but it was one of Rowan's magazines, so one shouldn't be surprised at anything found between its covers. There was also an article on how one might convince one's spouse or girlfriend into participating in the grand adventure of a threesome. That one had pictures too of a rather graphic nature, and he flipped past it with a sigh. One ought not be surprised. Rowan had varying and exotic tastes. His screensavers were generally blushworthy and always pornographic, little wonder that his reading material was questionable. 

He finished the square of chocolate, walnut encrusted sweetness. His tea was down to the last lukewarm dregs in the bottom of the cup. With a sigh, he closed the magazine and rose, thinking about going up stairs and turning on the radio to see whether any terrible accidents had been reported. 

The cat whined a little from his sprawled position at the back door. Great tiger ears twitched when Sai softly told him to go to sleep. One covertly wondered if maybe a little of Seiji's pain killer wouldn't do White Blaze a world of good. Have all the grouchy, hard to deal with wounded things stoned out of their minds. Which was a terrible thing to contemplate and he felt bad thinking it, casting a guilty glance towards the sofa on his way through the dark den. 

He padded upstairs and into his room. The soft, purplish light from his aquariums made the room almost phosphorescent. He switched on the radio and ambled about feeding this tank and that as he listened. All his fish were freshwater, his one marine concession being a small coral reef tank that housed a variety of invertebrate and corals. He couldn't conscience taking fish from the vast ocean and imprisoning them in small glass boxes. Freshwater fish weren't so bad. Freshwater fish didn't touch him the way salt ones did. The one tank, full of nasty minded African cichlids needed cleaning. He contemplated doing it, to pass time. 

There were buckets and siphons and all the required chemicals to keep his scaly pets happy and healthy in the hall closet. He went out into the hall, down its dark length towards the closet at the end. He gathered everything he needed, and turned to cart it back to his room and found himself face to face with Seiji. 

A Seiji who had come up on him as silent as White Blaze ever was, and a Seiji who stared at him through the shadows with fever bright, intense eyes. 

"Oh, you've woken up." Sai stammered, still a bit unnerved from Seiji's sudden appearance. "Well that's good. You went out rather like a light. You ought to go to bed until Rowan and Ryo get back."

He started to move past with his burden. Seiji's arm snaked out, palm pressed to the wall, blocking his way. 

"Ryo?" Soft, curious inquiry. Seiji's head tilted and long strands of pale silk hair fell to obscure the right half of his face. He moved a step closer, reaching out to brush the front of Sai's shirt with the back of a knuckle. 

"Where is Ryo?"

"Umm, out with Rowan, don't you remember? Are you all right, Seiji?" Instinctively he moved back. He couldn't help it, with Seiji bearing down on him, and a look on Seiji's face that was just -- odd. Seiji was moving strangely too, languid and slow, as if his body was still afflicted with the effects of the drug, while his mind had fought free. Perhaps he was drunk from it. Seiji didn't often sink to that state, so it was hard to tell. 

Sai held the bucket in one hand, and the long tube connected to the siphon cleaner over the other shoulder. Seiji reached down and caught that hand, lifting it up between them, tracing his fingers over the delicate bones of Sai's wrist. 

"I'm sorry I hurt you, Sai."

"It -- it's okay, Seiji." He was breathless. "It wasn't you."

Seiji smiled. Sai didn't get to see him do it often, a sensuous curve of lips over perfect white teeth. It was breathtaking and frightening and Sai pulled back, pressing into the corner with no place else to go and no clear notion of why he ought to wish escape. 

There was a snarl and a flash of pale movement out of the corner of his eye. Seiji whirled, back against the wall and stared wide eyed at the tiger who crouched low to the floor, not three feet from them, ears flat and low, dangerous growls rumbling from his throat. The cat meant business. The cat was low to the ground with a look in his eyes that was in no wise forgiving. 

Sai let out a little sound of confused dismay. 

"White Blaze. Stop it. What's gotten into you?" He stepped forward, past Seiji, one hand held out towards the tiger. White Blaze's growls grew louder, but his eyes were not focused on Sai. Sai glanced behind him at Seiji, completely confused now. He didn't even see the bunching of the tiger's muscles the moment before it leapt. The heavy body just knocked him aside as it passed, and with a tangle of white fur and silken house robe, Seiji went down under him. 

*

They had a speed now that they hadn't had before without the armors. And a power that really ought to have made Rowan feel invincible, if his mind hadn't kept wondering back to visions of the damned thing clawing away at his gut and snarling into his face. It spooked him and kept him spooked. Silly, really, since the armor of Strata should have made him feel ballsy as hell. 'Course, Strata's arrows generally made his targets do a little more than blink in a moment's surprise. 

So, he took to the trees. He felt better with the distance between him and whatever might be hiding in the brush. He could get a shot off from up there while Ryo dealt with whatever was ground bound. 

The rain and the darkness made it hard as hell to follow Ryo's movements, much less see what might be lurking in the shadows. Ryo made a good deal of noise, though, which served the double purpose of letting Rowan know where he was and maybe just drawing the hellbeast towards him. Rowan didn't think the thing was running from them. There had not been fear in those glittering, angry eyes, just animal ferocity and a lust for the kill. He didn't know why it had taken off instead of trying to finish him, instead of whirling about and slicing into Ryo's then unprotected flesh. Maybe more animal instinct's at work. Maybe it didn't like the smell of the armor. Who the hell knew.

The forest was illuminated with a quick flash of lightening. The rumble of thunder was fast on its trail. Rowan looked skyward, up through the tangled canopy of leaves and frowned. Between the trees and the godaweful amount of metal he had on his body, he made one attractive lightening rod. Kento had gotten hit once, while armored up. It hadn't done a whole lot more than knock him on his ass and make him see spots for two days afterwards, but he'd claimed it had hurt like hell. Rowan really didn't wish to experience it himself. 

"Hey, Ryo, wait a sec." 

His call echoed a little inside the confines of his own helm. 

"What?" Ryo was an oddly shaped sillhuette below. 

"This is a lost cause tonight, man. The thing's not coming back out."

"What do you wanna do, Rowan, let it go and kill somebody else?" Short sarcasm from Ryo, which meant he was frustrated and probably as miserable as Rowan was with water dripping down into his face from the points of his helm. 

"Course not, you shithead. But I don't wanna be lightening bait and I don't see any reason to stay out here all damn night for nothing. We come back in the morning with the guys and hunt the thing down then. Its big as hell, there's only so many places it can hide in the light of day." 

"No way, dude. We're close, I can feel it."

Rowan swore. Moron. Simpleton. Damned stubborn ---

Something came out of the darkness and enveloped Ryo. There was an ear piercing screech of claws against metal and a crash of heavy bodies into underbrush that had no choice but to give under the weight. Ryo didn't make a sound. The hell beast didn't. Rowan did, vocalizing all the curses he'd been reciting in his head. He pulled an arrow, nocked it and frantically looked for a target. 

There was a thrashing, a scream of anger/ pain/ surprise, that in no wise came from a human throat. A deep sound of rending wood and in the tangle of limbs and vines a tree began to topple. 

"Ryo! Where are you?" He screamed down.

"Here." An answering call. A movement in the shadows and Rowan locked on target. Saw Ryo and between Ryo and himself the hulking shape of the beast. He drew and fired. The thing turned and he got one glance of glittering, devious eyes before it threw itself to the side. The sizzling bolt of mystic energy singed its fur as it passed and slammed with terrifying accuracy dead center into Ryo's chest. 

Rowan's jaw dropped. He couldn't, at the moment, even come up with an adequate curse. 

*

Seiji was out. Like the proverbial light. He'd probably been out before he hit the floor with all of White Blaze's considerable weight piled upon him. Sai assumed this only because of the limp way he sprawled, completely non-defensive, when the tiger attacked. 

Sai was in the midst of opening his mouth to scream at White Blaze to stop, in the midst of rushing forward and putting his body in the way of tiger gone insane, when the big cat's ears just suddenly perked back up, and the growls stopped and the claws retracted back into large soft paws. White Blaze crouched over Seiji, sniffing his face curiously. The tongue flicked out to stroke Seiji's pale cheek. 

Sai crept to his knees next to the cat, not certain if shoving him away were a good notion. Ryo was the only one who could really roughhouse with the tiger and get away with it, and even he came away on more occasions than not with scratches and welts. 

"What's come over everyone tonight?" Sai muttered. "Please get off of Seiji, White Blaze." 

The tiger, in a very cooperative manner, stood up and daintily stepped away. He sat down a few feet away and watched as Sai tried to wrestle Seiji up. Seiji had a couple of inches on him and good twenty pounds. He was not easy, when he was not helping at all, to get down the hall and into the cool confines of his own bedroom. 

When he finally flopped Seiji down onto the bed, he sat down on the edge of it himself, running a hand through his hair in bewilderment. It was all just too odd. Seiji's strange behavior. White Blaze going quite deranged. Rowan and Ryo missing long into the night. Rather like something out of a horror movie. Sai didn't like horror movies. He didn't like the suspense and he certainly didn't like the bloodshed. Rowan thought they were amusing. He and Kento would laugh like idiots through the most horrendous parts, which really made one worry about the sad sick state of their minds. 

*

He'd scored a hit, with the preternaturally sharp edge of one of the mystic katana's. Had opened a slice along the rough, bristle furred ribs. Or at least where Ryo thought the ribs ought to be. The thing really wasn't any stronger than he was -- which was saying a whole hell of a lot -- with the armor on. He'd kicked it off him and slammed it into a tree with enough force to snap the trunk. It had been going rather well until Rowan shot him. 

Rowan's bolts hurt. Rowan's bolts dead on had one helluva impact. At the angle it hit, from almost directly above, it didn't fling him backwards so much as drive him down against the earth. He made a dent. Mud and leaves and chunks of root sprayed outwards. He lost all semblance of breath and his vision filled with bright dancing spots. 

It kept him from seeing the hell beast as it sprang on him. But he felt it as it jerked him up and bore him backwards, slamming him against a thick trunk with enough impact to shatter yet another tree. So much for regaining his breath. One broad, claw studded hand/paw swooped down over his face, completely covering the faceplate of his helm, smashing his head back against the tree. Again. He figured he was going to come out of this with bruises if not worse. No matter how impervious the armor, there was flesh inside that didn't take extreme banging about without some protest. 

And where in hell was Rowan when he needed him? He would have called if he'd had the breath. As it was he tried to get to the second sword which was still in its sheath at his back. The first one had been knocked out of his hand when Rowan's mystical arrow hit him. 

There was a rustling of leaves from beyond and this time the beastie didn't have the time to turn and escape. The explosive energy of Strata's arrow hit it between the shoulder blades and sent it crashing forward into Ryo. He was momentarily smothered by it, before he got his arms under it and pushed it off. This time Rowan's arrow had at least stunned it as much as it had stunned Ryo. This time Ryo wrenched his katana out of its sheath and lunged forward, intending no manner of mercy. One quick, powerful slice that should have gutted it, but didn't. It hurt it though. It howled and staggered. 

Ryo saw the other sword in the leaves and snatched it up, Hefted them both and summoned the will it took to control the raging heat of Wildfire. 

"Rowan, back off." One short, quick warning to Rowan who was on the ground and closer than he ought to be to something Ryo was about to fry. 

Rowan jumped back and the hellbeast, attracted by his movement surged after him. Ryo let loose a fountain of fire. It blasted into the beast, undaunted for the moment by the rain. The thing howled, caught up in an inferno that had nothing better to do than feed of its flesh. But it was still standing, staggering incoherently, and looking as if it were about to flee. Rowan sent another shaft towards it. And the impact of this one drove it to the ground. The mud and the rain put out the flames and it lay there, charred and unmoving, smelling of singed fur and cooked flesh. 

"Well --- damn." Rowan said softly, standing spaylegged in the leaves, his cross bow still held at ready. 

Ryo blinked water out of his eyes. "Did we kill it?"

Rowan shrugged, eyeing the steaming body suspiciously. "Why don't you go and poke at it or something to see if its really dead?"

Ryo raised a brow at the suggestion, then sighed and approached the thing.

"I didn't mean it." Rowan complained, then under his breath. "Idiot. Haven't you ever even seen a single movie in your life? You never go and prod the corpse."

Ryo ignored him, reaching out with the tip of one katana to nudge the very large, somewhat charred body on the ground at his feet. It didn't move. It seemed quite dead.

Hands grabbed his shoulders suddenly from behind and Rowan's shriek of _it's alive!!,_ almost made him jump right out of the armor. Killing Rowan was not an option, so he whirled instead and swiped a katana at him.

"You asshole. That wasn't funny." 

Rowan thought it was. Rowan was half bent over, laughing hysterically. "God, that almost made the whole night worthwhile. You are soooooo gullible, Wildfire."

"Fuck you, too, Rowan." Ryo muttered and turned back around to the creature. "So what do we do with it? We can't just leave it here. What if it resurrects or something? It was from hell, so was it ever really alive to begin with?"

"How in hell should I know? What da you want to do with it? Carve it up and take it home? Maybe Sai can make a stew."

Ryo gave him a disgusted glare. "I'm telling Sai about the tootsie pop."

"Oh, no you're not. I'll tell Seiji you slept with Mia."

"What? I did not!"

"Yeah, right."

"Rowan, I never ---"

"If its too wet to burn maybe we can cut it up and scatter the parts and pieces."

Ryo cast a distasteful glance at the corpse, knowing very well who would be cast in the position of butcher. But all things considered, it wasn't a bad idea. He sighed and sheathed one of the blades.

"I never even kissed her." He grumbled under his breath.

Rowan laughed. 

*

"What the hell happened to you two?"

Kento sounded mad. Kento stalked up to them, dripping wet, rain slicker partially concealing his face and stopped dead in his tracks when Rowan held up the grisly head of the beast they had killed. 

"What -- is -- that?"

Rowan grinned, shaking wet hair out of his eyes. "His name's Sparky. I was gonna take him home and make a pet outta him, but Ryo wouldn't let me."

"Close your mouth, Kento. It's gonna fill with water." Ryo said dryly and told him the story as they trudged through the woods towards the distant road. 

It was dawn by the time they got home. The rain predictably began to let up as soon as the three of them crowded into the musty dryness of Kento's car. 

It figured. Ryo sat in the backseat, fingers gently tracing a sore spot on his side and listened to Rowan and Kento talk. Things coming over from hell. He wanted to forget hell and all the things therein, but they had a severed head in the trunk as a reminder that forgetting might not be the safest thing for them. 

They got home and Sai came out onto the porch, with as about as thankful an expression as Ryo had ever seen on his face. Rowan got to tell the story one more time. Rowan was getting good at it. 

"Where's Seiji?" Ryo asked.

"Ummm, he's sleeping." Sai bit his lower lip. Sai sort of shuffled his feet and looked guilty. Ryo blinked at him, waiting, because Sai really looked as if he wanted to say more. "I sort of slipped him one of his pain pills because he wasn't going to take them himself and he was in discomfort and I don't think they go very well with wine because he sort of --- passed out. And then he woke up and was really quite out of his head and then he sort of fainted again after White Blaze jumped on him and I put him to bed after that and he's been asleep ever since."

Rowan snorted with laughter. "Sai, you drugged Seiji? Oh, god, that's just priceless. He's gonna kill you, you know?"

"He's okay?" Ryo asked warily, glancing up the stairs. 

"Oh, he's fine. Really, he is."

"White Blaze jumped on him?"

"Oh, White Blaze was upset too. I suppose he was just nervous because he sensed that thing out there and that maybe you were in danger, so that's why he was so anxious to get out. He's okay now."

The tiger was purring on the rug in the den, to attest to Sai's pronouncement. Ryo went upstairs, the sound of Sai's horror as Rowan tried to bring the head into the front door echoing up the stairwell. He shed the wet clothes and got into the shower to wash away the grime. There was a nice sized bruise on his ribs just under his arm pit. There was a very faint red welt just under his sternum. Nothing was broken. If he hadn't had the armor on it would have killed him. He equated the impact of Rowan's arrow to getting hit by a fast moving car. 

When he dried off, and slipped on a pair of boxers and T-shirt, he went to see if Seiji was in truth all right. Seiji was sleeping. Seiji didn't much move when he made his way into the room and sat down on the side of the bed. Seiji lay on his side, a pale hair obscured profile against the slate gray of his pillow case. He reached out and brushed the hair away and Seiji's long lashes fluttered. Drowsily, he blinked up at Ryo. 

"Hey, I'm back." Ryo said softly. 

"Hummmm." Seiji breathed an shut his eyes again. Ryo sat there, a wry smile touching his lips. It wasn't as if he'd been expecting a more enthusiastic greeting, but one sort of hoped when one was tired and achy and fighting back just the hint of the sniffles from a day of walking about in the rain. He made to rise.

"Stay." Seiji murmured it without benefit of opening his eyes. It was all the invitation he needed. Seiji's sheets were soft and warm and Seiji's body was pliant and smooth as he slipped down next to him. Seiji sighed against him, content to let Ryo position the both of them comfortably. A sleepy Seiji was generally agreeable. A drugged one was quite accommodating. It was rather nice to lie there in the comfort of Seiji's bed, with Seiji's soft head pressed against his shoulder and Seiji's svelte leg drawn up over his thighs. Quite an amiable way to let exhaustion take its toll and fall down into slumber. 

He let thoughts of things from hell seep away. The one time had been a fluke surely. For it to happen again -- well, the odds were just against it. 

The end 

The arc will continue


End file.
